


Save Me

by Kittywu



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe, Jearmin Week, M/M, Merman! Armin, Prompt: Fantasy, Sailor! Jean
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-16
Updated: 2014-07-16
Packaged: 2018-02-09 04:18:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1968738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kittywu/pseuds/Kittywu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"'Don’t you want to come out of the water? You must be freezing!'<br/>Armin shook his head. 'No, I’m good in here. I shouldn’t get out of the water.'<br/>He shouldn’t get out of the water? It sounded strange for Jean. So he took a deep breath and collected all of his courage.<br/>'Armin, can I ask you a weird question?' The other one nodded. 'What exactly are you?'"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Save Me

Armin loved thunderstorms. Thunderstorms meant waves. And waves meant ships in distress.

“Look at that beautiful ship over there”, Eren said with a smirk. They both hid behind a rock, watching how large waves crashed against the wooden hull of a ship that might belong to a royal family or something like that. They both had watched quite a lot of noblemen drown. It was always a pleasure.  
“What do you think, Armin? Is that ship about to sink?” Large drops of water fell on their hair and the parts of their skin that weren’t safe in the unlimited depths of the ocean. Not that the rain bothered them.  
“Probably. They are heading towards the rocks over there. And I think Annie and Mikasa are trying to make sure they do.” Armin pointed at a cliff that stuck out of the sea a few hundred meters from them. Quite close to the cliff, the vague shape of two bodies was visible. Their pale skin shimmered like diamonds in the sunlight.  
“Damn, I’ll go help them. I love to hear Annie’s voice. And have you seen her lately? She sure is a gorgeous princess!” Within the blink of an eye, Eren was gone. And because the sea was already quite ruff, he couldn’t even make out where Eren had dived into the dark blue water nor his shadow under the surface. Armin sighed and looked at the cliffs. He could go there too. Usually, he would. He loved is as much as Eren to lure sailors to the cliffs in the area, to watch them drown and maybe collect a few souls that desperately cried for help. But today, he wasn’t in the mood for games. His gaze wandered to the ship he and Eren had watched earlier. Strangely, he felt the urge to examine it a little before it would sink.

It was huge. He swam around it and figured that it was larger than most of the ships he had seen before. And it looked quite different than the local ships. Too bad that they will die far from home, he said to himself. Whenever one of the sailors rushed past the rail, he quickly hid himself underwater.  
“Captain! There are cliffs on the port side! We need to change course!”  
They will navigate directly into the cliffs where the others are luring them, Armin thought. Might as well swim to the others.

But just when he was about to swim ahead, he saw a sailor leaning over the rail. A sailor that looked incredibly sick, as far as he could tell. He wanted to hide, but he was frozen in place by the sight. And before he could manage to dive, he felt something drop on his head. Something wet. But it wasn’t rain. Carefully, he lifted a hand to whatever had landed on his blond hair. He frowned in disgust as he realized that the handsome sailor had just puked onto his head. Armin looked up and for a split second, their looks met.  
“Kirschstein! Get your seasick ass over here!” Someone shouted from the deck. The voice was as loud and intimidating as the thunder. Terrified, the sailor left the rail. So Kirschstein was his name. What a funny name, Armin thought to himself. He held his head underwater to wash away the mess Kirschstein had produced and decided to head to the cliffs where his friends were staying.

* * *

 

“Look how close they are already! There is no way such a huge ship can avoid the cliffs now!” Eren let out a short laughter and continued to sing.  
“There are quite some people on that ship”, Annie said without seeming half as excited as Eren did.  
“Good that we’re here first, right?”, Eren shouted.  
Mikasa smirked. “There will be quite some souls for us.”  
“Too bad Kirschstein will die”, Armin murmured.  
“What?” The three others looked at him, puzzled.  
“Nothing. Just talking to myself.”

The four of them just continued to sing and to lure the ships into the cliffs, even though it wasn’t necessary anymore. Just as Eren had said, there was no way how that ship could escape its fate. But strangely, Armin couldn’t feel his usual excitement. He kept looking at the ship that came closer and closer and felt his chest tighten. He didn’t want Kirschstein to die, if he was honest. He didn’t know why though – he was a human. He should feel pleasure to watch him drown and should try to get his soul in exchange for the promise to save the drowning body. But he didn’t feel like getting Kirschstein’s soul. Strangely, he didn’t want it.

A loud noise echoed through the dark sky. The sound of the ship crashing into the cliffs was louder than thunder. Then, all that was heard was shouting of orders and panicked screams. And even though it was hard to make it out between all those horrifying noises, there was the quiet snickering of Eren, Mikasa and Annie, who swam in the direction of the first sailors that tried to keep their heads overwater.

Armin remained where he was. He frowned at the thought of Kirschstein giving his soul to one of the other three. He frowned at the thought of the handsome, light brown haired sailor to die.

The ship began to sink. More and more people tried to hold onto remains of the wreck, some tried to get into tiny ships that were let down into the rough sea. As he saw a light flashing underwater, he knew that someone had collected the first soul of the storm. With a sigh, he approached the sinking ship.

“Help! Help me! Lord, have mercy with me and save me!” A voice cried out loud, not far from where Armin was at that moment. “Please, help me! I don’t want to die! Help! Help!” The cries were interrupted by gasps for air. “Please! Rescue me! God!” He swam closer to the voice and dived underwater shortly before the sailor would be able to see him. “Don’t let me die!”

When Armin was directly under the drowning sailor, he closed his eyes and said with the sweetest voice he could get out: “Don’t worry young sailor. I am here to save you. You won’t drown. Trust me. Come to me.”  
The sailor hesitated for a moment, the gasped for air, held his breath and got underwater. Eyes still closed, Armin continued. “Promise me your soul and I’ll bring you safely to the shore.” He opened his eyes to see if the sailor was nodding in agreement. But the sailor in front of him was Kirschstein, desperately nodding with puffed cheeks and eyes squeezed shut. He stretched out his arm to take the soul but something stopped him.  
“Do you really want to give me your soul?”, he asked. Kirschstein didn’t stop nodding. So he moved his hand closer to the sailor’s chest. He stopped again, not even a centimetre between his hand and the soaked cloth of Kirschstein’s uniform.  
“Are you sure?” It was harder than usual for Armin to make the final move and take his soul. But Kirschstein kept nodding.  

* * *

 

When Jean woke up, the first thing he did was to cough. He had gulped down a lot of water and he felt horrible. The next thing he did was wondering if he was dead.

“You’re not dead. Just in case you were wondering”, a soft voice said. He looked around but could see no one. The whole bay was empty. There wasn’t even a seagull wandering along.  
“Over here”, the voice said. It seemed to come from out of the water.  
“Where are you?”, he asked carefully.  
“I’m here”, the voice answered. Jean moved closer to where the voice seemed to come from.  
“Are you hiding behind those rocks?” He pointed at a set of rocks that was just large enough to hide a rather small person.  
“Not quite”, the voice said with a giggle.  
“Where are you then?”

Suddenly, he spotted a small head peeking out of the water, directly next to the rocks.  
“Wait, you’re in the water?” He crouched down on one of the rocks and tried not to fall into the sea. The person in the water giggled again.  
“Do you see someone else around here?”  
“No, I guess not.” The person reached out a set of slim and pale arms and leaned them onto the rocks in front of him. “Who are you?”, Jean asked.  
“You probably don’t remember, huh? I brought you here. But I guess you lost consciousness on the way, so I can’t blame you.” As he spoke, his skin glistened in the sunlight. He had never seen something like that before, it shone like one million stars.  
“Are you sure that I’m not dead? This doesn’t feel real.”  
“No, you’re alive. I made sure that you reached the bay unharmed.”

Then it struck Jean like lightning. When he had been drowning, a beautiful voice had promised him to save him. And that voice sounded incredibly similar to that blond boy’s voice. But hadn’t the voice said something about taking his soul?

“What’s wrong?”, a pair of large ocean blue eyes looked at him with concern.  
“Who are you?” He didn’t want to say ‘what are you’ – because he had never met a person yet that took souls. He barely remembered the tales of his grandmother, who had told him about demons tempting people and then taking their souls or about frightening monsters who ate souls, but this little guy didn’t look like neither of those. He actually looked quite innocent and young. His face looked still boyish, even though he had some feminine features. He had a button nose and golden shimmering hair that was about chin length.  
“My name is Armin. You are Kirschstein, right?” Armin looked a little lost for a second, then he stretched his hand out like he wanted to shake hands. But the way he did it looked oddly out of place. He stretched his arm out in lightning speed and with so much force that Jean had to avoid losing an eye. No way that this awkward guy was an evil demon or a monster.  
“Yeah, Jean Kirschstein. But just call me Jean”, with a grin, he shook Armin’s hand. It was ice cold.  
“Don’t you want to come out of the water? You must be freezing!”  
Armin shook his head. “No, I’m good in here. I shouldn’t get out of the water.”

He shouldn’t get out of the water? It sounded strange for Jean. So he took a deep breath and collected all of his courage.  
“Armin, can I ask you a weird question?” The other one nodded. "What exactly are you?”  
He looked from side to side, not quite sure what to say. But suddenly, a large, sapphire coloured fin got out of the water maybe a meter behind him. “I’m a merman”, Armin said with a wide grin.

* * *

 

“Hey, Jean? Are you ok?” Jean blinked a few times and looked at Armin. He looked at the fin, back at Armin, then at the fin again and then he blinked again.  
“Are you sure that I’m not dead?”  
“Quite.”  
“But you. How. That fin. What. I don’t know”, he stammered. Armin just kept giggling. That boy seemed to have a lot of fun.  
“I’ll tell you again, then. You’re not dead. I’m a merman. I live underwater about a three hour swim away from here. With those ships of yours, you’d probably take a lot longer. I saved you from drowning and brought you here.” He curled his fin so that its tips nearly touched his hair.  
“Do you have… like a real tail?” Jean was just confused. There was no way that something like a merman existed. There was also no way that Armin actually had a fishtail. Something was, well, fishy. But Armin just dived into the water. Suddenly, an entire fishtail stuck out of the sea. It was sleek and had the same sapphire colour like the fin, each scale looked like a jewel, they could have been part of the crown of a mighty king. Then, the tail disappeared again under the surface and Armin stuck his head back up.  
“See?”, he said.  
Jean blinked again. “Damn. You do have a real tail. And quite a pretty one too.”

Armin blushed. “That’s because I’m still young. It won’t look that shiny anymore once I’m old. And it’s actually just ordinary. It’s not that strong and you should see the tails of the royal family! Their princess for example”  
“Wait, there is more of those mermen?” He must have died in the storm. And if he hadn’t, he probably hit his had really badly, Jean thought.  
“Quite a lot! I mean, there’s quite a lot of your people too, I guess? Tell me something about your people? Why do you keep going on the ocean with those ships? Wouldn’t it be way more convenient to swim? And why can’t you guys breathe underwater? Why do all of you guys keep calling for someone called ‘god’ when you’re about to drown? Who is he? Or is that just a very common name?”  
Jean blinked again for a few times. “Hold on for a second. I’m still busy with the ‘you-have-a-fishtail-thing’. Why do you have a fishtail?”  
Armin just laughed. “Because I’m a merman! Will you tell me something about your world? You see, we’re actually not allowed to talk to humans, but you seem so nice! And I’m really curious how life feels like for someone who isn’t a merman.” His eyes glistened with excitement. Sometimes his fin splashed up and down.

“Let me get things straight. I got saved by a merman.” Armin nodded. “You’re a merman.” He nodded again. “I’m not dead.” He grinned widely. “And you’re totally not shitting me.”  
“Yeah. Will you tell me something about your world now? Please!”, he pouted a little and Jean couldn’t help but think that this odd little merman was really cute.  
“Why not. Where should I start, huh?” He smiled.  
As he said that, Armin’s eyes grew even larger than they already were and he waved with his fin like a dog would. “Tell me about your ships. No, wait, tell me something about your society. No, no! Tell me about those things you have instead of a tail.”  
The merman definitely was cute, Jean though with a smile. “You mean legs?” He pointed at his legs. Armin nodded and mouthed the word. “There’s not that much about them, I guess. We have two of them and yeah, we use them to walk. That’s it.”

Armin looked around like he was thinking about something new to ask. But before he could speak, Jean interrupted his train of thoughts. “You just have this tail, am I right? No legs.”  
Armin shook his head. “So you’re like half fish? Do you have gills?”  
The merman turned around and pointed at something on his shoulder blades that looked quite like gills. Four on each side. “But we can breathe over- and underwater.”  
“Damn. That’s freaking cool.”  
He blushed again. “So you really can’t breathe underwater?”  
This time, Jean shook his head.  
“Why do you use those ships?”  
Jean scratched his chin while he looked for a good answer. This merman had some tricky questions. “Since we can’t breathe underwater, we use them to travel from shore to shore.”  
“But wouldn’t it be faster to swim?”  
“We can’t swim that long distances, I guess. But wait, you’re telling me that you swim faster than our ships?”  
“I’m not the fastest swimmer, but just so you know: even I could easily overtake that ship of yours.”  
“Wow.”

“Shit”, Armin said suddenly.  
“What’s wrong?”  
“I have to go, it’s getting late. But promise me that we’ll meet again, ok?” He smiled and was about to go underwater.  
“Wait, Armin! Where am I actually?”  
“The closest shore to where your ship sunk” he said without hesitation.  
“That means? What city is this? Or what country?”  
“City?”, Armin looked confused.  
“Forget about that. Thanks for saving me.”  
“You’re welcome. Promise me that I’ll see you again, please. We’ll just meet here. And you’ll tell me more about that world of yours.”  
“I promise.”  
Just then, he stretched out his hand again for a handshake. Once again, Jean had to give his best to not get stabbed by Armin’s hand. “You know, you don’t have to stretch out your hand that firmly. It’s better like that, you see?” He held out his hand in demonstration. Armin nodded, took Jean’s hand and shook it. “See you soon!” And then he went underwater. Not a second later and he was nowhere to be seen.

* * *

 

Armin came back to the bay every day and waited for Jean. But he didn’t come. Even though he grew more nervous with each day he waited for Jean in vain, he still couldn’t stop coming. Jean had promised, Armin thought. And he hoped that a human promise was worth as much as a merman promise. So he came again and spend the time close to the bay. Each time when he heard something, he didn’t know whether he should call out for Jean or whether he should hide since it could be someone else then Jean. But still, there wasn’t a single day where he didn’t come. And every day, he had the feeling that today would be the day where Jean would come.

“Hello?”, someone whispered. Armin froze. It was the first time since he started coming here that someone actually spoke. What should he do? “Hello? Armin?”  
Carefully, Armin peeked his head over the surface. “Jean? I was scared that you wouldn’t come back again!” He stretched his arm out, just the way Jean had shown him the last time they had met.  
“I did come back, but you weren’t there!”, the sailor said. This time, he looked different. He wore different clothes, and his hair looked combed better. More important, he was completely dry.  
“But I was here every day! I waited for you didn’t come”, Armin said with a pout.  
“I was here every evening!”

Armin looked at the water around him. “I can’t come in the evening. Just during daytime.”  
“Oh”, Jean said. “Why?”  
The merman bit his lip. “I can’t tell you. But I’ll be here every day”, he said with a smile.  
“Is that a merman secret?” Jean winked.  
“Yes.” Armin was dead serious. He couldn’t tell Jean these things. Not yet at least. Even though he felt way too drawn to the human, he didn’t know if he could trust him.

“So… How have you been doing?”, Jean asked after a while. He had looked at the ground and had tried to say something a few times before that, but each time, he had stopped before any sound could have escaped his mouth.  
“I waited every day for you to come. But since you promised, I knew that sooner or later, you’d come around. I should have told you earlier that I can only come during daytime.”  
“Oh”, Jean said again and looked onto the rocks on the ground.  
“How have you been? How is life outside of the water? Tell me everything about it!”  
“I figured that I’m really far from home and I’m not even where I was supposed to end. My ship was sailing to India, you know, and America is quite the opposite direction. But well, I didn’t have any business in India anyways, I just worked on that ship to India. I would have signed on the next ship back to England immediately. But I guess stranding in America is better than not stranding at all, huh? Even though it was quite tricky to find a place to stay. I mean, I don’t have money and when I told them my story – I couldn’t tell them I got saved by a merman of course, they would have thought I am insane – it was a little odd because they knew nothing of a ship sinking close to the shore. But I found a nice old lady who offered me the room of her son. She told me I remind her of him and that he had died in the civil war. So actually, I’m trying to make enough money to pay her back the expenses she had on me and to pay for the journey to the next big harbour.”  
Armin listened with large eyes, soaking in every word of the things Jean told him, even if he understand close to nothing of them. “Jean?”, he said when Jean finally took a break. “What is this India? And America? And what is this civil war? Why did the son of that lady die there?”

Jean looked at him, startled. Obviously, he wasn’t aware of the fact that he was the first human being Armin had ever talked to.  
“Ok, India is a country. And it’s really far away from here. The same goes for England, by the way. And America is where we are right now.”  
“You call places countries? What a funny name”, he said and giggled. “Is England the country where you come from?”  
“Yes, well not actually. I come from a country close to England and it’s called France. But that’s a different story” Jean leaned closer to him and gently ruffled his hair. Even though it was wet, it fell back into its place. “Merman hair feels just like human hair, only softer.”

Armin felt something warm in his chest each time when Jean said something nice to him. Even though he said something about mermen in general this time, he felt his cheeks heating up. “Thank you. May I touch your hair too?” On one hand, he yearned to touch Jean. But on the other hand, he was also really curious if human hair felt just like merman hair. Jean looked at him a little suspiciously, but still tilted his head so Armin could reach it. Jean’s short hair felt dryer than merman hair. But besides that, it felt just the same. “Thanks.”  
“You’re quite curious, aren’t you?”, he said with a smirk.  
“I never thought I would be talking to a human! It’s so thrilling to break a rule and also really fascinating. I always wondered so many things about your folk and now I get to ask someone first hand. That’s just amazing.”  
“Oh damn. And the human you get to talk to is a stupid boy who knows nothing of the world yet.” Jean sat on the rocks, his knees close to his chest. With one arm, he hugged his knees, with the other, he drew circles onto the ground.

“You’re a good human to talk to. You’re really nice, except for that time you puked on me, but you are also cute, I think. And I believe you know very much.” Armin tried to smile as warm as he could so that Jean would stop to look so miserable. But Jean just looked terrified at Armin.  
“When… did I puke on you?” He covered his mouth with his hands.  
“Oh, you were still on that ship. But you probably didn’t notice that I was there.” Because it was the only thing Armin could reach, he gently patted the tip of Jean’s boots, leaving wet stains on them.  
“I’m really sorry.”  
“It’s ok.”

* * *

 

They had chatted for quite a while and Armin hadn’t stopped asking questions about Jean’s world. But after some time, Armin seemed to have gone short on questions. So they fell into comfortable silence. It had been sunny when Jean came to the bay, but slowly, the sky turned darker. Big, grey clouds shoved their way over the sun. And as the weather ceased to be warm, a dark thought repeatedly circled in Jean’s mind.  
“Armin, I’ve been wondering… Did you actually take my soul, back then, when you saved me?”, he asked in such a low volume that the merman could barely hear him. He looked at Jean with his big blue eyes and laughed.  
“I wanted to… But I couldn’t. I didn’t want to kill you.”  
“Wait, what?” Hadn’t he promised to save him in exchange for his soul? And he had been saved by Armin, he knew that much already. So if he was alive and still had his soul, there was something wrong in the whole story.

“I hoped you wouldn’t ask”, Armin said and looked away.  
“Why?”  
“It was a lie that I’d save you if you promised me your soul. If I had taken your soul, you just would have died. It would have been a less cruel death than drowning I guess, but still.”  
Jean bit his lip and searched for Armin’s innocent eyes. But he faced away. “Why did you save me, then?”  
“Because I saw you on the ship and found you really interesting. I felt drawn to you. I felt sad that you would die. But when I saw your ship sink, I thought it couldn’t be helped. Since my friends already had gone ahead, I thought that one of them would probably take your soul. But when I saw you in front of me, I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t bear the thought of taking your soul when it meant that you had to die. It is ridiculous, really, since it’s actually our only purpose to take the souls of human beings. But I couldn’t take yours.” He looked at Jean with his big blue eyes like he was scared that Jean would leave him there and then. He looked seriously afraid. But again, all Jean could think was that the young merman was just too cute.  
“It’s ok, I mean you didn’t kill me in the end. So I should be glad, right?”, he said, as the first drops of rain fell onto Jean’s skin.

Once again, Armin waved his fin in excitement.  
“Do you mind the rain, Jean?”, he asked.  
“I don’t. Do you?”  
“I live underwater. Do you think more water would bug me?”  
“Whatever.” Together with the first roaring thunder, Armin splashed some water into Jean’s face with his fin. “Hey!”, he shouted in the direction of the merman who hid himself underwater. With a sheepish grin, he got overwater again.

“Jean, there is one thing I still want to know about humans.” Armin bit his lip and looked him deep in the eye.  
“Ask me everything you want to know.”  
“It’s not actually a thing to ask. It’s something I’m curious about. Does it feel different to… kiss a human?” As Armin asked, his face turned completely red. And Jean too felt blood rushing into his cheeks, leaving them hot and probably as red as Armin’s.  
“That’s a strange thing to ask”, he stammered but Armin didn’t look away.  
“I know.”

Jean looked at the blond merman for a few seconds. He didn’t know what to do, he just listened to the rain dripping into the sea. And as he looked into the large blue eyes, he just leaned forward and brushed his lips against Armin’s wet lips.

“Did it feel different?”, he asked after pulling away.  
“Yeah”, Armin said and smiled. The way he smiled made Jean feel something warm in his chest, his heart started to beat faster and all he wanted was to kiss him again.  
“Will you catch me?”, he said as he looked at the stirred up water.  
“What?”  
“Will you catch me? If I jumped into the water, would you catch me?”  
Armin’s smile got wider. “If you want me to.”

Jean took a deep breath and jumped into the dark water. Armin did catch him. He slung his arms around the merman’s neck and kissed him once more.

It was the first time that Jean realized how much he liked thunderstorms.

**Author's Note:**

> I left room for a sequel or to just expand this thing on purpose. While writing, I grew so fond of this AU that I actually want to explore it more. I have a lot of headcanons left that didn't fit into it yet. So yeah. maybe sometime.


End file.
